Fernando Alonso set for Dakar Rally comeback with Aston Martin

Great speculation has accompanied Fernando Alonso in recent months as he held back on confirming his future in Formula 1. Now it appears that not only has he been able to agree favourable terms with Aston Martin to stay on in F1 for 2027, but also persuaded the car manufacturer to back him in another assault on the Dakar Rally, Motorsport.com understands.

The deal is believed to have been discussed as far back as August but has only just been leaked via the Spanish media. During the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend, Alonso made some cryptic remarks about "surprises" that could emerge "in the next few weeks". This was assumed by many to mean some kind of GT racing entry with Max Verstappen, but in fact it is a return to a challenging event he has contested before with Toyota - finishing 13th in 2020.

During his second stint at McLaren in the mid-2010s, Alonso became so disenchanted with the Honda-powered team’s competitiveness that he negotiated permission to contest the Indianapolis 500. He then took a sabbatical from F1 between 2018 and 2021, competing in the Indy 500 again as well as winning the Le Mans 24 Hours outright with Toyota in 2018 and 2019.

"Yes, exactly, I had to stop. I had to switch off from Formula 1," said Alonso of those experiences.

"I had to experience different formulas and different series, and learn from the specialists in those series and become a more complete driver. That was very important for me and I still find those challenges appealing. I don't know when I will do it, but I will repeat those experiences.

"I love challenges. My way of understanding motorsport and my way of living is around racing cars. It has been all my life and I think my strength has been to adapt to different cars, different rules: V10, V8, V6, Bridgestone, Michelin, Pirelli, KERS, hybrid, ground-effect cars, all these different things. Plus different series: prototypes, Indy, Dakar.

Alonso has already contested the Dakar, with Toyota in 2020

"I try to use that strength and maybe do things that were possible in the 1960s, '80s or '90s and now probably no one will try. Max is the only one trying to do some GT racing. But apart from that, I like that challenge.

"I tried these things in the past and I will continue doing that. So maybe, yeah, you have more surprises in the next few weeks. There are things that people probably think that are impossible, but I want to find the limits of what is possible."

The Dakar Rally is an infamously challenging annual fixture which began life as the Paris-Dakar Rally, but was forced to shift location owing to instability in North Africa. After several years in South America it is now hosted by Saudi Arabia.

Alonso will drive an Aston-Martin branded car prepared by Prodrive, and based on the Dacia Sandrider which won the most recent running of the event in the hands of Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Fabian Lurquin. Shortly after that, Dacia announced it would end its programme in the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) a year earlier than originally planned, at the end of 2026 rather than the end of 2027.

The Sandrider itself was a development of a project which started life as the Prodrive Hunter, but was re-engined and rebodied to resemble the Dacia Manifesto concept car. The base vehicle lends itself to relatively straightforward re-engineering of body and powertrain.

Motorsport.com understands that one of the plans on the table is to badge the new car as the Dreadnought, based on the virtual Aston Martin concept vehicle from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and style the body along the same lines.

Prodrive has a long history with Aston Martin. Founder David Richards served as chairman of the British marque from 2007 to 2013, and Prodrive ran Aston Martin’s successful GT and prototype sportscar racing programme.

The first tests with the Dacia Sandrider that will form the basis of the Dakar Aston Martin are reportedly due to take place within the next few weeks. Marc Coma, who partnered Alonso in 2020, is expected to return as his co-driver. The fellow Spaniard is a Dakar legend in his own right, having won the motorcycle category five times with KTM between 2006 and 2015.

The Dakar is unfinished business for Alonso, who finished 13th in 2020

Prodrive is apparently planning to field a full Dakar team based around the Sandrider project rather than just a single car for Alonso and Coma. According to the Spanish reports, Al-Attiyah and Sebastien Loeb are also being considered as drivers. There has, however, been no official confirmation of the programme so far.

There is also uncertainty over where the 2027 Dakar Rally will actually take place. Until 2007, during its classic era, the event ran for decades from Europe into West Africa, usually finishing in Dakar. The 2008 edition had to be cancelled because of security concerns in Mauritania. From 2009 to 2019, the event retained the Dakar name but was held in South America, before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2020.

Officially, the 2027 Dakar is still scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia from 1-15 January. Organiser ASO has already published a detailed route comprising 13 stages and a total of 5,320 kilometres of competitive running. The FIA also continues to list Saudi Arabia as the official host country.

However, there is currently considerable uncertainty because of the geopolitical security situation in the Middle East. According to recent reports, ASO is therefore working on a contingency plan in which would Morocco step in as an alternative host.

A significantly more compact event of around eight stages is reportedly under consideration, although no final decision to move the rally to Morocco has been made.

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